Re: Adhesive for PE

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: Adhesive for PE
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 18:49:53 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net


From: 	Malcolm Watts[SMTP:MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz]
Sent: 	Tuesday, September 16, 1997 5:21 PM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	Re: Adhesive for PE

Hi Geoff,

> From:   Geoff Schecht[SMTP:geoffs-at-onr-dot-com]
> Sent:   Monday, September 15, 1997 8:51 PM
> To:     Tesla List
> Subject:    Re: Adhesive for PE
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > From:     Sulaiman Abdullah[SMTP:sulabd-at-hotmail-dot-com]
> > Sent:     Monday, September 15, 1997 12:20 AM
> > To:   tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> > Subject:  Adhesive for PE
> > 
> > Hi,
> > Can anyone tell me what adhesive to use to glue together 3mm thick 
> > pieces & sheets of PE 500 ? (HMW Polyethylene, natural color)
> > 
> > Thanks in anticipation ... Sulaiman
> > 
> Hi Sulaiman:
> 
> There have been several threads going on about glues for plastics lately so
> I guess that I might as well jump on in and give my tuppence-worth from a
> practical experience standpoint.
> 
> There's nothing that I've ever heard of that can glue polyethylene. To glue
> something, you either need to have a solvent action or a bonding action
> (ionic, I think but I'm an EE...not a chemist :) ). Solvent welding is what
> you do to join plastics like styrene, methacrylate or PVC. Typical solvents
> for thermoplastics like these are methyl ethyl ketone, acetone will also
> work and I recall reading Malcolm's post about tetrahydrofuran working on
> methacrylates like plexiglas.
<snip>

     That solvent was for PVC. I've never tried it on anything else. 
I only knew because it was written on a can of the commercial stuff 
(which is basically some PVC dissolved in that solvent).

Malcolm